The invention relates to apparatuses, methods, and systems for digital collaboration, and more particularly to digital whiteboard systems which facilitate multiple simultaneous users having access to global collaboration data.
Digital whiteboards are often used for interactive presentations and other purposes. Some whiteboards are networked and can be used for collaboration, so that modifications made to the display image on one whiteboard are replicated on another whiteboard or display. Large scale whiteboards offer the opportunity for more than one user to present or annotate simultaneously on the same surface. However, problems can occur in the coordination of the multiple users, and in some circumstances their use of a single whiteboard can restrict their flexibility of expression.
Also, digital whiteboards can comprise large display screens or arrays of screens in a single room, which are configured to provide a large “whiteboard” like interaction surface. Thus, it is anticipated that the large digital whiteboards may be shared by many users at different times for different collaborations. Where the collaboration data for collaboration is confidential with access limited to authorized users, but the digital whiteboards at which the users interact are distributed to many sites and not necessarily under exclusive control of a single user, a problem arises with the security of access to a collaboration.
In addition, the distributed nature of the system leads to the possibility of multiple users in different places who interact with, and can change, the same collaboration data at the same time, and at times when no other user is observing the collaboration data. This creates a problem with concurrency in the multiple locations, and with sharing information about a current state of the collaboration data.
Therefore, it would be desirable to find ways to allow multiple users to share collaboration data in a distributed network of whiteboards, in such a way that each user has maximum freedom to express his or her ideas with real time exchange of ideas, while providing security adequate to protect the confidential nature of the collaboration. An opportunity therefore arises to create robust solutions to the problem. Better ideas, collaboration and results may be achieved.